FORSAKEN - Target: Zero

CHAPTER TEN

The officer glanced at the droid under his brow. "Is everything alright?"

"Come on, come on, come on..." Elynn watched her program continue to look for the code. One of the entries expanded from the rest and flashed. "Got it." She typed it in.

The vault opened.

"Proceed," the officer said.

Meanwhile, one of the stormtroopers guarding the back gate noted, "What's taking so long?"

"Who?"

"The garbage truck, how long does it take to pick up the trash?"

"Let's check."

Inside the vault, a thick glass partition showed the stacks and rows of data discs stored within. The KX connected to the standalone terminal to search for Project Celestial Power. A mechanical arm darted across the stored discs to retrieve the file. The droid took the disc from inside the delivery slit, inserted it in the access port in his torso, and began to download the information into its memory banks.

"Poodoo." Kogo-Leeto spotted the stormtroopers coming around the corner. "I knew this was taking too long."

"I need more time." Elynn focused on her work.

"And I'm going to need heart surgery."

"Just hold them off for as long as you can."

"How?"

"I don't know, I do the slicing. You want to trade?"

"Fine. How do you say 'Not the face," in Wobani?" Kogo-Leeto got out of the truck. "I don't care how, just do it," he yelled at Elynn. "We're running kriffing late as it is."

"Hey, you. What's going on?" said one of the stormtroopers.

"What does it look like? Truck problems." Kogo-Leeto walked toward the guards.

"What's the problem?"

"If I knew, we would already be out of here, wouldn't we? Just give us a second. I'm sure it's just a bad motivator."

"In a speeder?"

"She's the tech-head, I just drive the truck. She'll figure it out—she always does—and we'll be out of your helmets in no time. Don't worry about it."

"This is a restricted area; you can't loiter around." The other stormtrooper motioned for the Rodian to leave.

"And you think we want to be here? We have hundreds of pickups to make, and this hunk of junk keeps breaking down us. I'll be lucky if I still have a job by the end of the day. Just be a pal, give us a moment, and everything will be alpha. Say, did any of you catch the grav-ball game last night? I think the Nexus really have a chance to make it to the Annual SecBowl."

Elynn finished downloading the information into the KX droid, had it return the disc, and exit the vault. Once outside, she used the KX's powerful, built-in communications booster to interface with the network and transmit the information to her. But she found a password protecting the droid's memory.

Kriffing Imps. Elynn could break it, if she had the time.

"I don't like this," the stormtrooper said to his partner.

"Agreed. I'm calling it in."

"Call in what, a tow speeder?" Kogo-Leeto threw his arms in the air. "What are you taking about?"

"Stand back." The Stormtroopers aimed his gun at him.

Kogo-Leeto put his hands in front of him. "Hey, hey, hey, I'm working here. Can you cut me some slack? Do you think I'm having fun? Nobody wants to get out of here more than I do. There's no need to get all hot inside those buckets."